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Transportation discussion stirs public input

Members of a newly formed transportation committee are already getting a lot of suggestions from the public about road issues around the area that need to be addressed.

The committee was formed by Putnam County Executive Randy Porter and includes representatives of the county, all four cities and the Chamber of Commerce.

After Porter and Cookeville Mayor Ricky Shelton posted stories about the committee on Facebook, their followers began commenting on roads and other issues they thought needed to be addressed.

"This is SO needed!" said Melissa Halfacre. "The roads here in Cookeville, Algood, Baxter and Monterey were not designed or built to handle the amount of traffic we receive each day. It has become downright unsafe to travel the main roads."

"Glad to see the city and county working together on this," said Jonathan A.D. Williams. "Ditty Road, Buck Mountain Road and Pippin Road are three county roads that are heavily traveled and need improvement."

"Especially Ditty, which floods in at least two places," echoed Shannon Duncan. "During this committee's tenure, one major aspect of their decision making needs to include improvement or restructuring of the drainage systems of each municipality and the county as a whole."

Other commenters suggested a third lane on I-40 and a bypass road around Cookeville.

During its initial meeting, committee member Jon Ward, Cookeville's assistant director of planning, said roads should not be the sole focus.

"It's more than just roads from the city's perspective. It's multi-modal stuff," he said. "People are wanting sidewalks and bike lanes and all kinds of stuff like that that we're trying to take into consideration."

Meanwhile, committee member Mike Atwood, chairman of the Putnam County Commission, asked what method the state currently uses to set priorities.

"If it's state roads, it's what's approved by the RPO (rural planning organization.) They identify priorities," said James Mills, director of planning for Cookeville. "We lobby through the RPOs on what projects we want to get done. We've got three or four that have been in the hopper for years and years and years."

Mills said, even after approval, it may take years to get a project completed.

"South Jefferson is the first one we got approved. Is it built yet? No. It's the top priority," he said. "2020 is when it's finally supposed to widened to five lanes, but that did go through the process."

He also said a proposal to widen Willow Avenue was aided by the potential of Tennessee Tech and Cookeville Regional Medical Center being willing to donate right of way.

"With the potential for financial contributions from both of those entities, including right of way dedication, we put a proposal together and we've lobbied TDOT to get North Willow put on the priority list and it now has been," Mills said. "The RPO endorsed it, but old-fashioned politicking is still a big part of this."

Porter said he is optimistic about the committee's work.

"Everything else we do is a team effort. I wouldn't think this would be any different," he said. "If we're all working together, it's got to be better than us all working separately."

The next meeting of the committee is scheduled for 2 p.m. Nov. 2 in the conference room at the Putnam County courthouse.